Al-Farabi

"A fair city should favor justice and the

just, hate tyranny and injustice, and give
them both their just deserts."

Al-Farabi
Biography
– Born in 870 AD in Wasij, Turkistan.
– Studied in Baghdad under the guidance of the famous Greek translator, Abu Bashr Yunus.
– His great service to Islam was to take the Greek heritage, as it had become known to the
Arabs, and show how it could be used to answer questions with which Muslims were
struggling.
– Contributed considerably to science, philosophy, logic, psychology, medicine, mathematics
and music.
– Known as the Mallim-e-Sani- “Second Teacher”-
– Died at the age of 80 years in Damascus in 950 AD.
On the perfect state
• “The excellent city resembles the perfect and healthy body, all of whose limbs co-operate
…. Now the limbs and organs of the body are different and their natural endowments and
faculties are unequal in excellence, there being among them one ruling organ, namely the
heart, and organs which are close in rank to that ruling organ …. The same holds good in
the case of the city. Its parts are different by nature, and their natural dispositions are
unequal in excellence: there is in it a man who is the ruler, and there are others whose
ranks are close to the ruler, each of them with a disposition and a habit through which he
performs an action ….

• Lawgiver, philosopher, imam are roles of the ruler

Khitab Al-Musiqa
– Al-Farabi was particularly interested in instruments which make the theoretical
side of music easier to understand.
– For this purpose he himself fashioned an instrument and modified some others,
like the Baghdad drum (tanbur) and the rabab.
– The fundamentals of the science of music are learned through perception and
practice.
Interesting facts
– In the field of psychology, Al-Farabi was one of the first to write on the concept
of social psychology, which is man's need for communion with other people in
order to live.
– Al-Farabi's portrait appeared on the currency of the Republic of Kazakhstan
– As a philosopher, Al-Farabi was a founder of his own school of early Islamic
philosophy known as “Farabism” or “Alfarabism”.
Pictures
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